DC's 2017 Writers Workshop Class Roster Named

By Chris Arrant, Editor August 9, 2017 08:42am ET

Credit: Jim Lee (DC Comics)

Credit: Sanya Anwar

The participants in the latest round of DC's Writers Workshop program have been named. First revealed by The Hollywood Reporter, the 2017 class is Magdalene Visaggio, Sanya Anwar, Joey Esposito, Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Robert Jeffrey, and Ryan Cady.

"It's 13 weeks, and we meet for two, two-and-a-half hours online in a Brady Bunch-style box of windows," said Scott Snyder, the lead writing instructor. "I teach it in such a way that it's all superhero writing for DC. I try and make each week a lesson about a particular technique. My job is not to teach you how to write by formula for DC. It's for you to come in and write the stuff you're passionate about in your own way. I don't care if that's funny political, light-hearted, dark, whatever. Your job is to come in and have something to say. My job is to help you fit it into the rubric of superhero calculus and to help you maximize that story: look at where you should beef things up, slow it down, be aware of pacing. You need to come here and have something to say."

Credit: Black Mask Studios

This is the third class of students who have participated in this Writing Workshop program. The next class for the DC's Artists Workshop program have not been named.

"I thought it was great. Scott Snyder is, without a doubt, one of the best writers working in comics. But he is also a great teacher," Writers Workshop alum Matthew Rosenberg told Newsarama back in January. "Getting to listen and discuss story, character, and just about everything comics with him was a real great experience and I am definitely a better writer for it. I think just having the chance to talk in depth about process and craft is invaluable to creators, and it helps a lot when you get to do it with one of the best."

After completion of these workshops, DC's Vice Preisdent/Executive ditor of Young Reader & Talent Development organizes plans to place the various writers and artists on DC projects across the company's publishing platforms.

On November 29, DC will release an anthology of work from the 2016 graduates titled New Talent Showcase #1. A similiar one-shot was done for the inaugural class from 2015.

Here is the solicit for that new book:

Credit: Jim Lee (DC Comics)

NEW TALENT SHOWCASE 2017 #1
Written by ERICA HARRELL, DESIRÉE PROCTOR, DAVE ACCAMPO, AARON GILLESPIE, AL LETSON, TONY PATRICK and OWL GOINGBACK
Art by SAM LOTFI, MINKYU JUNG, LYNNE YOSHII, SIYA OUM, MATT MERHOFF, LALIT SHARMA and JAGDISH KUMAR
Cover by JIM LEE and SCOTT WILLIAMS
That latest graduates from the DC Talent Development Workshops show off their skills in stories starring some of DC’s greatest characters. In these tales, Poison Ivy fights an ancient demon, Doctor Fate is confronted by the cost of magic, Red Hood and Duke Thomas face off in a training day simulation and so much more!